GVSU students use math games as learning tools for Holland Heights students

Tuesday

Nov 19, 2013 at 10:00 AM

By Lisa.Ermak@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4219

How can you make elementary math exciting?Holland Heights Principal Kevin Derr knows the answer: Bring in a slew of college students to play fun math games with students for an evening.On Monday, aspiring teachers in the elementary education program at Grand Valley State University visited Holland Heights to host Family Fun Math Night.Heights students and their families were invited to the school for an hour and a half of interactive math instruction led by the college students.Working in pairs, the college students used curriculum material from their classes to create math activity centers for students and their families to rotate through. The idea was to provide meaningful instruction to students in a fun way, regardless of their age, said Pam Wells, a GVSU mathematics education professor."Generally, they create activities like games, crafts or exploratory estimating kinds of things, where students are engaging in math in a hands-on, friendly way."And every activity station came with a handout for the family, with suggestions for math-centered activities to do at home, like having children measure the distance a pom-pom traveled through the air or figuring out the tip for a food bill."There is a lot of math you can do at home," Derr said. "We’re trying to get parents to see there are things every day that begin to teach (their kids) some of those basic skills. You want to have all learning to be fun because if it’s fun, you want to do more of it."About 10 years ago, Grand Valley’s education department began hosting math nights in schools across West Michigan."University of Michigan Flint was doing something similar, so we did some reading about family math nights," Wells said, "and it just sounded like a win-win-win experience."— Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelLisa.